Independent Board schedules interviews with candidates for FUP director today

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Independent Board of the FBiH Parliament will hold a session today to review the requested documentation for eight candidates who applied for the competition for the director of the Federal Police Administration and schedule interviews with the candidates for January 31. A ranking list of candidates should be made then, which will be forwarded to the Minister of Interior of FBiH. For the end of January, the acting director of FUP, Dragan Lukač, announced his resignation. FUP is still without a deputy director. In that case, when neither a new director nor a deputy is appointed, FUP would be led by Nurudin Hafizović, head of the Federal Investigation Service of the Criminal Police.

Although information emerged that due to the Code of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, three members of the Independent Board, Branimir Orašanin, judge of the Court of BiH, and prosecutors Mirko Miličević and Zdenko Kovač, cannot be members of that body, there is still no official confirmation that they are in a conflict of interest. The Independent Board will, as confirmed for Patria, send a letter to the HJPC and request clarification of the Code's provisions in that case. The Independent Board was confirmed in May and constituted at the beginning of June last year. The HJPC adopted the Code at the end of 2018.

According to the HJPC Code, it is stipulated that holders of judicial functions cannot be members of organizations connected with law enforcement agencies, including boards and commissions for the selection and appointment, and boards for the dismissal of police chiefs. Until the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council declares itself, the Independent Board will continue to work at full capacity.

Eight candidates applied for the position of FUP director, of which six are Croats and two are Bosniaks. The applicants are Zoran Čegar, head of the Uniformed Police Sector of the Federal Police Administration, Ivica Bošnjak, deputy director of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, Ensad Korman, FUP official, Zoran Galić, director of the Border Police of BiH, Mustafa Hujdurović, FUP inspector, Milan Galić, current police commissioner of the West Herzegovina Canton, Ljuban Frljić, head of the Operational Center of the MUP SBK Travnik, and Robert Perić, head of the Field Office South Čapljina of the GP BiH.

Dragan Lukač and Zlatko Miletić each served two terms at the head of FUP.